Security is an important requirement in many document printing applications. Since it is well known that a document itself could represent value; a motivation has existed for forgery. The issues of authentication and counterfeit deterrence can be important in many contexts where protecting the information (inherent value of the document) is often more important than protecting the physical document itself. Bills of currency, stock and bond certificates, credit cards, passports, birth certificates bills of lading, as well as many other legal documents (e.g., deeds, wills, etc.) all must be reliably authentic to be useful.
Hence, protection of both fixed data and variable data is often a requirement in many such documents to prevent counterfeiting and copying. The phrase “fixed data,” as used in this disclosure, refers to data that remains constant over a plurality of documents. The phrase “variable data,” as used in this disclosure, refers to data that varies between documents. Examples of documents containing both fixed and variable data include personalized checks, university diplomas, currency notes, deeds for land or buildings, vouchers, permits, tickets, and the like.
Prior art methods exist to secure such documents and their information or value by including various types of security elements in the documents. However, securing a document is only the first part because a protected document is effectively unprotected if the protection cannot be validated. The current techniques do not serve to verify the authenticity of a particular copy of the information. To validate a secured document, a user must be familiar with the location and identity of the security elements in the document. For example, a user cannot tell if a Russian currency note is real by analyzing the security elements embedded in the currency note if he is unfamiliar with the security elements and/or the bank note. The problem is exacerbated when a user has to validate less common documents such as documents printed on standard paper using standard printing technologies. The current methods of validation such as barcodes and warning boxes included on the document itself are static, inadequate, obtrusive, and prone to tampering or forgery. Furthermore, validation is even more problematic when all the documents are inherently different since they contain important variable data (such as seat numbers in the case of concert tickets).
The present disclosure therefore addresses instances where the issue is not merely whether the information is authentic, but rather whether the information is authentic (and unaltered), and the document itself an original by validating secured or protected documents.